Environmentalists revel in downfall of their public enemy No. 1

ERICA WERNER

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Republican Rep. Richard Pombo of California gave environmentalists fits with his unmasked disdain for the Endangered Species Act and his reverence for private property rights.

They exacted a stunning revenge this week.

Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and others spent more than $1 million to shove the seven-term incumbent out of office Tuesday at the peak of his power as chairman of the House Resources Committee, which writes environmental laws.

Pombo will be replaced by Democrat Jerry McNerney, a little-known wind energy consultant with a doctorate in math. McNerney has written novels but has never held elected office and lost badly to Pombo two years ago.

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Tracy, where he and his family live at their cattle ranch, a subdued Pombo said he had called McNerney to offer congratulations. He declined to take shots at his opponent, Democrats or the environmental groups that bedeviled him.

"I knew I was going to be a target of these outside groups, but it didn't change what I did as a member of Congress," Pombo said.

"I've fought for the things I believed in and I'll go home with my head held high. ... Obviously, my opponent spent a huge amount of money. But today it's all about congratulations."

McNerney ended with 53 percent of the vote to Pombo's 47 percent, an outcome considered nearly unthinkable until recent weeks. But the newcomer said Wednesday that he wasn't surprised.

"I'm honestly telling you I knew that I would win this race and it was just a matter of sticking with it," McNerney said in an interview. "I knew that if we stuck with our guns, the missteps of these leaders would catch up with them."

Environmental groups, meanwhile, were crowing.

"Rep. Richard Pombo's loss represents the most significant electoral victory the environmental movement has seen in decades," exulted Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife action fund. "It should now be clear to all that we have the political strength to take on and defeat extreme anti-environmental politicians, even powerful chairmen of congressional committees."

Pombo, not McNerney, was the focus throughout the campaign. Environmentalists blanketed his GOP-friendly district, which includes portions of the San Joaquin Valley and the eastern San Francisco Bay area, with TV commercials and mailers questioning his ethics and his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Democrat largely escaped scrutiny.

"My opponent could be a clown. It wouldn't make any difference," Pombo complained to reporters several days before the election.

Pombo's was the only one of California's 53 House seats to change party hands Tuesday as Democrats seized control of the House from the GOP. GOP Rep. John Doolittle triumphed in another hotly contested Northern California race, beating Democrat Charlie Brown with 49 percent of the vote to Brown's 46 percent, a narrow margin for a solidly Republican district.

Environmentalists were angry at Pombo over the incumbent's support for energy and gas drilling, privatizing public lands and rewriting the Endangered Species Act to add protections for landowners - all while he raised money from industry groups that could benefit.

He also had taken $7,500 from Abramoff, who's cooperating in a congressional corruption scandal, although he donated the money to charity.

Pombo is a conservative cattle rancher who wears cowboy boots and once described moderates as people who "just can't make up their mind what they believe in."

Some of his proposals seemed designed to provoke environmentalists' ire, as when he suggested selling off public park lands for energy and commercial development to make the point that it would be better to drill for oil in an Alaska wilderness area, instead.

On Wednesday, Pombo boasted of bipartisan accomplishments as Resources chairman, including passing a rewrite of the Endangered Species Act. On his watch, the committee also passed a major forest management bill meant to cut down on wildfires and legislation lifting federal bans on offshore oil drilling. Of those, only the forests bill became law.

McNerney was written off as too liberal by national party leaders, who backed a different candidate in the primary. He said he plans to focus on energy innovations when he goes to Washington.

"A lot of people from different stripes were fed up and wanted a change," McNerney said.